


and begging ghosts to live again

by bene_elim



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: (eventually) - Freeform, (they're brought back to life), Alive Champions (Legend of Zelda), Angst, Multi, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Panic Attacks, There'll be a lot of that, but with some bits and pieces of botw 2's trailer included, lets see how it turns out (id prefer to include it but it depends on nintendo), post-botw1, pre-botw2, the champions wont be around for a loooooooooonngggg time, umm.. will probably have to add tags as I go because I can't think of anything else atm, will i ignore aoc canon??? idk yet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bene_elim/pseuds/bene_elim
Summary: When Link and Zelda journeyed to a shrine so that Zelda could conduct her research, they didn't expect to be given the opportunity to revive the Champions.
Relationships: Link & Revali (Legend of Zelda), Mipha/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	and begging ghosts to live again

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! here we go with my first (published) Zelda fic! A note or two before starting:
> 
> 1\. Link is mute throughout the whole fic. he wont talk. I'm mute too so im just trying to relate to a character i love
> 
> 2\. Descriptions of panic attacks and anxiety ahead, please proceed with caution! I base Link's experiences on my own (im projecting SO HARD on this boy)
> 
> 3\. Wow ive taken liberties with lore here! I played with the triforce here bc its not mentioned like at all in botw so I figured, lets see what I can do??? But like, yeah, let it be known that even with the zelda games ive played under my belt and also reading the wiki over and over, im not entirely sure what im doing, the zelda lore is just so complex!! Sorry if I get something truly wrong.
> 
> 4\. title is from another harold pinter poem because i love him. its title is 'god' and its from 1993.
> 
> many thanks to junietuesday25 for beta-ing for me! i ignored one of your suggestions because im british. sorry. but thank you for your hard work!!!

Another sunset washed Hyrule Field ablaze in golden tones. There had been a week’s worth, so far, without the taint of malice on the horizon: a week’s worth of pure air and unmarred moons. The castle, with its central spire piercing the sky like a lance through silk, might have been crumbling and ruined, but to Link and Zelda, it was the most beautiful sight they could imagine, now untainted by Ganon’s essence floating around it.

Zelda had wanted nothing more than to throw herself back into her research. She had already claimed the Sheikah Slate that Link normally kept guarded and had marvelled over the many features that she hadn't seen one hundred years ago. The things that interested her most were the shrines. She hadn't hesitated to grab Link's hand and press on one, immediately gasping in sheer delight as she felt her atoms separate and reform in her chosen location. It had been the shrine at the Spring of Wisdom, and Link had been utterly unsure as to why she would choose to go to such a place, especially in light of what happened a century ago at the Spring.

He idly watched Naydra circled above them as he lent on his sword and listened to Zelda gush about the shrine hidden behind the Goddess statue.

‘Oh, but isn’t interesting how the shrine opened for you! It’s like it knew, somehow, that you were coming to train! I wonder…’ She approached and laid the Slate on the Guidance Stone. Nothing happened. ‘Ah, but it’s frustrating! How could it possibly know who is wielding the Slate?’

Link trained his gaze back on Naydra and shrugged. Naydra bowed her head as though agreeing with him.

‘Link,’ Zelda called, and he quickly refocused back on the princess. She was beckoning him with her hand through still facing the shrine. ‘Please, open it up and show me inside!’ she said when he had drawn nearer.

He took the Slate from her offering hand and held it over the Guidance Stone just as she had done not a minute previously, but now the familiar tone of the Sheikah Slate being accepted rang out between them. He guided her to the platform in the alcove and managed not to startle as it lowered, though Zelda next to him squeaked at the sensation. She held on to him, though the platform moved at a slow enough pace that she could have regained her footing. But Link thought about being trapped for one hundred years without human contact, and didn’t say anything, because he imagined that if he’d been awake during all that time, he too would want someone to hold on to.

When the platform stopped moving, they stepped off it onto the walkway. Zelda oohed and ahhed at the ceiling and at the glowing blue lights and at the water surrounding them.

‘This is incredible, Link!’ she said. ‘Why, all this room… It must be underground! And these lights, how do they work? Are they powered by the blue fire? Are they the same as the blue lights that the Divine Beasts glow with? How fascinating! Oh, if only I could have had the chance to enter one of these one hundred years ago…’

But Link wasn’t listening. At the end of the walkway and up the stairs sat a monk, one which Link was sure that he had received a spirit orb from before. After all, this shrine was a solid blue point on the map, not orange, which meant that he had collected his spirit orb here. Why was the monk back?

‘And I just can’t wait to see how the blue flame reacts with different metals – will it be the same as normal fire, or different? A blue flame normally means it burns hotter, but – Link?’

He had begun to walk to the monk but stopped when he heard his name. He looked back at Zelda, surrounded by the four posts of blue light and bathed in it like she was Naydra herself.

‘This monk shouldn’t be here,’ he signed to her. She frowned.

‘Well, I’m sure monks can be wherever they please to be, Link…’

‘No,’ he signed, ‘I already collected my spirit orb from this shrine. The monks disappear after I do that. If I enter any shrine a second time after collecting it, they’re not there anymore. This monk shouldn’t be here.’ His last few signs were a little wider and more expressive than the rest. He hoped Zelda would understand his confusion.

‘Well… That’s certainly odd,’ she eventually said. Then she perked up. ‘Let’s go see why he’s back!’

Sometimes, Link envied her scientific mind. His first reaction had been to draw his sword and see this as a threat.

They stepped forward together until they reached the smaller set of stairs leading to the monk’s pedestal. Then they stopped, as Link was feeling hesitant.

What could this mean? What else would he have to do? There was a reason this monk was here, surely, but that must mean that he has to do something else. And at what cost to him? Hasn’t he done enough?

‘Link. Come on,’ Zelda urged, gentle. And just like that, he found that as long as she was by his side, he wouldn’t mind another adventure.

They approached the monk together.

‘Hero and Princess…’ The monk spoke, his voice loud within the shrine and echoing – or maybe it was within their heads? Link had never figured it out, no matter how many times it happened. ‘My name is Jitan Sa’mi. I awarded you a spirit orb before, Hero, but now I offer something that may be of even greater importance to both you and the Princess. The Goddesses have spoken and agreed: three of your Champions of the past can be resurrected at each of the three springs: Wisdom, Power and Courage. Naydra and I have the combined power to bring back one.’

Link gave a sharp gasp while next to him, Zelda broke into tears. He absently reached for her hand and she latched on so tightly that quickly hid fingers went numb, but he didn’t notice. He didn’t notice, he couldn’t notice, because Jitan Sa’mi had just said that he has the power to bring back to life one of the Champions – one of the people from one hundred years ago that Link supposedly had been friends with.

‘Oh, Link,’ Zelda whispered, but before she could say more, Jitan Sa’mi interrupted.

‘However, this gift cannot come without cost,’ (and just like that, Link’s heart sunk: he was right, there would be a price to pay after all. What would he have to do now?) ‘Each piece of the triforce. I know that you, princess, have Wisdom, but you must have all three. You will need them to bring back your friends.’

‘Link, Link, we must!’ Zelda said. Link readily agreed, nodding once in his stoic way, though inside his stomach was already twisting. This task seemed daunting, somehow even more daunting than even destroying Ganon had seemed – perhaps because he thought he had left all this behind him now, or perhaps because he was not the person who he had been one hundred years ago and the idea of bringing back those who he could remember only in flashes and whose spirits he had met only briefly terrified him in some cold, cold way. Would he be to them what he used to be? Would they like the ‘new’ him better, or would they want the ‘old’, dead him back? Would they blame him? These very thoughts scared him more than he wanted to admit.

He registered Zelda thanking the monk and promising to return with the triforce but the next thing that Link truly knew was the harsh, bitter chill of the outside air. Mount Lanayru was as cold and covered in pillars of ice as Link remembered and it all mixed together with the coldness of his fear to make a full-body shiver run through him. He could barely just stop himself from falling to his knees on the frozen stone beneath him. His Snowquill armour felt useless for the moment.

‘…ink…’

Oh, Goddess, it was happening again. It was happening again, he was going to lose his memories again, he was going to have to fight for his life every single day again.

‘…Link…’

Oh Goddess. Oh Goddess. Not again, please.

‘Link!’

His eyes snapped open from where they had closed without his permission and instead of the dark and dank ceiling of the Shrine of Resurrection, it was Zelda in front of him. He drew a shaky breath and became alert, his own old fears forgotten when he saw the worry on her face.

He glanced around but couldn’t determine the danger that Zelda was concerned about. He looked back at her and signed, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘You, silly! You had me so worried, you just stopped responding and your breathing! It sounded like you’d just ran a mile! Are you alright?’

‘Fine,’ he signed, straightening up, catching his breath still. Zelda frowned at him, disbelieving.

‘You can’t just say you’re fine, Link! I didn’t know what to do!’

‘Nothing’s wrong. Not anymore.’

Zelda scowled but said nothing further. Link wondered briefly whether his dead self had been just as stubborn and Zelda dropped the matter out of habit, out of knowledge that nothing would get him to admit that there is a problem. Link wondered whether he’d always carried his own burdens without help.

‘Well, anyway,’ Zelda said with one final half-hearted glare at him, ‘I suppose we should get started.’

What a task lay before them. This was no mere gathering of spirit orbs, or even dragon scales or star fragments. This was something of a divine duty. This was… This was bigger than himself, he felt. How were they to do this?

Zelda had radiated with the glow of the triforce of wisdom when she had defeated the Guardians that had killed him one hundred years ago – he remembered the moment through the slits of barely opened eyes, pain making the edges hazy but a complete picture, nonetheless. He himself, though the supposed Hero of the land, never had possessed the triforce of courage as his past reincarnations had in the stories that he’d heard from Impa and Zelda. It made him feel somewhat lacking, somehow, like this was a sign that he wasn’t truly courageous.

How would they find these other two pieces?

‘Link, maybe we should go and speak to Impa. Surely, she’ll know more… After all, how are we meant to find the triforce of all things?’ she muttered to herself. Link pretended he hadn’t heard her, for it would be easier than signing that he didn’t know either and reminding the princess that this mission might actually take some time.

-

They got to Kakariko by nightfall, the moon bathing Hyrule in her silvery light. No blood moons had been observed since the fall of Ganon so Zelda and Link walked without worry through the evening until they reached the hills within which the village was contained. Immediately, Link relaxed, Kakariko somewhat of a safe haven for him throughout his travels. He wondered whether Koko would have any spare food from dinner left before Paya greeted them at the pumpkin fields like she had been expecting their arrival.

They were guided to Impa’s house by a quickly talking Paya. So excited was she that she didn’t hesitate over her words as she asked Zelda question after question, though she did trip over them and her stutter wasn’t completely gone.

‘Now, now, Paya, I’m sure that the princess will be happy to answer all your questions later,’ Impa chided Paya when they all entered and gathered around her. ‘Why don’t you tell me why you’re here, Zelda, Link?’

‘Oh, Impa, you’ll never believe it! Link and I were examining the shrine at the Spring of Wisdom when he alerted me to the fact that the monk inside shouldn’t be there anymore! So, we approached, of course, and, oh, you’ll never believe what he told us, Impa. He said there’s a way to bring back the champions! But we need the three pieces of the triforce. I have wisdom, though somehow, I shall have to try and manifest it as a physical piece rather than the spiritual power I seem to have, but we have no idea where courage and power could be. Do help, Impa, won’t you?’

Impa was silent for a long moment. It stretched on so that Link wondered whether she would ever speak again at all, for she truly kept silent for minutes. Zelda was anxiously wringing her hands in front of herself and shifting her weight from one foot to the other then back again, continuously. Paya seemed to vibrate with excitement, though her attention was solely on Zelda. Link found himself still, possibly because now he was with the princess again, he was falling into old, forgotten habits such as being nothing more than a shadow. He didn’t like it for himself, so he tried to move a hand, an arm, a leg – but it felt stiff and awkward, so he resumed his silent, still, wait.

Eventually, Impa said, ‘Hmm.’

Zelda eagerly waited for more, but the elder of Kakariko was not forthcoming. An expectant look adorned Zelda’s face.

‘Well?’

‘I see,’ said Impa.

And another silence.

‘Hmm,’ said Impa.

‘The thing is,’ said Impa, and trailed off again.

Paya leaned over to Zelda and whispered loud enough for both her and Link to hear, ‘This may take a minute. Best be patient when grandmother gets like this.’

So Link and Zelda waited while Impa thought and thought. And eventually, Impa said, ‘That’s very interesting news. Are you sure?’

And Link wondered what exactly she was asking they were sure about – whether the monk was there, whether he was telling the truth, or whether they were sure they wanted to embark on such a quest – but Zeqlda was already nodding yes before Link could even finish considering these options, so he nodded cluelessly along too.

‘In that case, you would do well to remember your history. The princess with the blood of the Goddess carries the triforce of wisdom, yes, but what of the reincarnated hero’s soul?’ Impa’s eyes settled heavily on Link and he felt his heartbeat raise. ‘He holds the triforce of courage, does he not?’

He wanted to shake his head, deny it, for he had never felt particularly courageous - not enough to hold the triforce of courage, at least. But Impa was looking at him with such intensity that his head couldn’t help but move up and down into a slow nod. He was sure he didn’t have the triforce but it was true what Impa said: the reincarnated hero’s soul holds courage. Why didn’t he have it?

‘I’m sure, Link, that by looking deep enough within yourself, you will find that which you are searching for,’ Impa said cryptically. ‘And now, that leads us to the triforce of power. Do you remember who holds that, Princess?’

Zelda’s brow had been furrowed for the past five minutes, listening intently but with some confusion to Impa. ‘Ganon, but…… Link destroyed him,’ she responded. Before the complete sentence was even out of her mouth, Impa was shaking her head.

‘You may have destroyed Ganon but he inhabited the castle for a century. He did not disappear without leaving his mark. Go. Search the castle. Perhaps you will find what you are looking for.’

The frown on Zelda’s face said that she wasn’t sure she believed that, but nonetheless she thanked Impa for her help. Paya then led the two of them out to the steps of the house.

‘I’m sorry she wasn’t more helpful,’ Paya said, eyes downcast and blush upon her cheeks.

‘That’s alright, Paya,’ Zelda said kindly, a hand resting on Paya’s shoulder. It caused Paya to look up and into the eyes of Zelda which were, Link could tell, forgiving and soft. He just about heard the feeble gasp that escaped Paya but he easily noticed her blush growing a shade darker. He was glad her attention had shifted focus to perhaps a more willing recipient than himself.

‘It’s not your fault,’ Zelda continued. ‘Impa’s always been fairly cryptic. Even when she seems to be talking in a straightforward way, there’s something cryptic in there to decipher. It’s just the way she is. At least she provided us with a direction to start with. I didn’t think to search the castle before! And I’m not quite sure what she means about ‘looking deep within yourself’, Link, because I’m quite sure you don’t have the triforce of courage,’ (and, oh, if that didn’t hurt just a little bit - even Zelda didn’t believe in him. Impa must be wrong.) ‘but we’ll see! I’m feeling good about this, now we have a target. Let’s go to the castle!’ She eyed Paya softly. ‘You’re… you’re welcome to come with us, Paya,’ she said.

Paya blushed even harder. ‘Oh! Um, I’m af-afraid I c-can’t!’ she stuttered out. ‘I must stay - stay here with Grand - Grandmother. I wish you luck, though, princess! And you as - as well, Link!’

‘Very well, I understand,’ Zelda said warmly. ‘Come, then, Link, we’ll make our way to the castle. Maybe along the way we can figure out what she meant when she said ‘look inside yourself’. Hmm….’ and off she trailed, through the archways and out of Kakariko. Link looked back at Paya once, awkwardly waved goodbye, then bounded after her before he lost her, pondering also as to what Impa meant for him to do.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i can't promise a new chapter too soon but im writing it right now so hopefully... within a month? let me know what you think if you have a spare minute! thanks!


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